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All you can do in the face of such tragedy, such tragedy and loss that it makes no sense at all…is to gather your family and love them. Tell your children, show your children this love. Gather your community and sit in intimate love with all of those people. Reach out to the people in your community who don’t reach out. Help those who need it.

All you can do in the face of tragedy is to be as strong as you can. Go into each day with the assured knowledge that despite the actions of one person, the world is still a good place. There are still kind and caring people everywhere. The world is not a place to be feared and it is not a place from which to isolate your children. Isolation is not the solution to societal problems.

All you can do in the face of tragedy is to find support in your community. Your community can carry far more for you and for your children than you ever could on your own.

All you can do in the face of tragedy is create your own home to be a place of goodness, a place of beauty and of stability. Create a safe and steady rhythm for your days, your week and your year. Go back to the wisdom of earlier times, to those who knew the cosmic rhythms, knew the liturgical rhythms, and knew the rhythm of man himself in life.

All you can do in the face of tragedy is to love your children with all your heart. Heal your childhood wounds. Do not pass these onto your children. Tame your words, and take a break if you need it in order to tame your words and actions. Yet, at the same time, be easy on yourself and on those around you. Life is not perfect, people are not perfect. And yet we are all still here and we can all love one another.

All you can do in the face of tragedy is to lean on your God when you cannot walk yourself. Tragedy faces men, yet we rise up in triumph. Tragedy faces us, yet we persevere. Tragedy faces us, yet we remain strong. Tragedy faces us, yet we create anew.

Rise up. Love one another and start from the most precious place one can start – our own homes and families. Let our light branch out to the rest of mankind.

Rise up.

Mourning tonight with the rest of the world,

Carrie

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Eleven is a really interesting time in which to observe development; in many ways it is more akin to the six/seven year transformation and change. That same burst of complete restless energy is there, along with crying outbursts from both girls and boys, and a complete preview of adolescence to come. It is a different energy than children going through the nine year change, where the child is feeling lonely and separated.

Let’s take a closer look at the developmental qualities of an eleven-year old from a traditional perspective: Continue reading →

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One thing that many Waldorf teachers do at night is to meditate on the children in their

class. I think this practice is absolutely vital as a parent, and certainly as a homeschooling parent!

In the discussion /write-up following Dr. Helmut von Kugelgen’s article “How Can We Find A Connection to The World of the Angels?” in the blue paperback book, “A Deeper Understanding of the Waldorf Kindergarten,” the question arises: Continue reading →

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The second week of Advent is upon us; perhaps we are fasting and praying in accordance with our religious traditions of Advent being a small Lent. Perhaps we are feeling weary from having a holiday season that is moving rather fast; the fatigue that comes from trying to create perfect holiday memories for the children or the fatigue of spending.

I invite you this week to go back to the true meaning of Advent. Perhaps this is the week you really think heartily about that question that truly seems to afflict first-world citizens more than others: how much do we really need to “get”? What are we giving? How much do our children really “need”? Is that what they are going to associate this season with – getting?

Staring new traditions can be difficult. I was reading the post on gratitude the other day on the blog A Holy Experience and how they exchange no gifts at all and instead choose gifts from catalogues designed to help others – giving the gifts of animals, trees, seeds, bees. If you are thinking about new traditions, I don’t think it is ever too late to start. I saw this post on Simple Mom regarding supporting mothers in need for the holidays here: http://simplemom.net/csp/ Perhaps a tradition along these lines will be of interest to your family.

And, as a special treat, Christine left a comment below with a special offer. She writes:

“As a special gift, I would like to share with your readers a Winter story that I wrote last year. It is not in the collection mentioned above, but will be in any future editions. Here is a link to the story in PDF format to download. The illustration is by Josephine Wall and I do not have permission to use it, but I think it is ok to share among friends.”

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What lovely timing to have the first day of Advent beginning tomorrow, and to have our topic for Day Twelve be that of “warmth.” I recently wrote about warmth on All Saints Day, one of my favorite days of the whole year, but today I really want to expand upon this concept of warmth as an inner quality that we hold for children.

I see many adults who do not seem to be convinced that the world is a good place, or that the people around them are good. This can be particularly difficult to hold sometimes in this season of holidays and in gathering with relatives and perhaps even friends whom we might feel hold judgment against us or the way we are raising our own family.

Yet we must hold this warm and caring space for our children. Our beliefs and our moods penetrate our children, and giving a child a “Christmas mood” year round is a fundamental foundation for the small child. Our ability to cultivate and hold this mood should come back to the work we do in our religious and spiritual path. Continue reading →

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The Parenting Passageway

Welcome to The Parenting Passageway

A passageway, as one would guess, is a conduit to the next thing: a way to allow movement from one place, condition or stage to the next. This blog is entitled “The Parenting Passageway” as it is intended to help support and encourage parents in peaceful parenting for our hectic world. Thank you for reading and many blessings to you

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